Rise in Blood Pressure Observed Among US Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

ypertension affects almost half of US adults, and blood pressure (BP) control is a national public health priority. 1The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted both daily life and routine medical care, including the treatment of chronic diseases such as hypertension.Given the unknown impact of the pandemic on BP, this study investigated changes in BP during the pandemic among participants in a US employer-sponsored wellness program.This longitudinal study included employees and their spouses/partners, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, participating in an annual employer-sponsored wellness program operated by Quest Diagnostics.Participants were required to have BP measured by trained personnel in all 3 years analyzed (2018-2020).The annual BP changes for 2019 versus 2018, January to March 2020 versus 2019, and April to December 2020 versus 2019 were estimated for comparisons between prepandemic (January 2019-March 2020) and pandemic (April-December 2020) periods.Most US jurisdictions put in place COVID-19 stay-at-home orders between mid-March and the start of April 2020, thus establishing prepandemic and pandemic time periods.The mixed model for repeated measures was fitted to assess the adjusted effects of time (pandemic versus prepandemic), sex, and age on changes in BP.Data analyses were performed using SAS Studio 3.6 on SAS version 9.4.This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines for reporting cross-sectional studies 2 and was deemed exempt by the Western Institutional Review Board in accordance with 45 CFR §160 and §164.

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